


Shopping at Lowe's and Kissing Under Mistletoes

by TheCharise98, transboykobrakid (Lucipoo)



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Dad stuff, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 16:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5546861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCharise98/pseuds/TheCharise98, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucipoo/pseuds/transboykobrakid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikey is babysitting Bandit for a couple weeks while Gerard and Lindsey are on vacation and he meets a cute single dad who helps him take care of her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shopping at Lowe's and Kissing Under Mistletoes

Mikey wasn't sure why he told Gerard that he would babysit Bandit. It's not that he doesn't like kids, he liked Bandit a lot, it's just that he had no idea how to care for a young child for 2 weeks. Gerard and Lindsey were going on a trip to Europe and they asked Mikey to look after Bandit. It's not ridiculous, looking after your niece is the sort of thing brothers do for each other, but Mikey was starting to regret the decision.

Mikey realized that it might not have been the smartest idea about ten minutes after Lindsey and Gerard left, right around the time Bandit told him she was getting hungry and he noticed that none of the food he had was suitable for a child.

He sighed and closed his fridge, looking down at Bandit who was standing beside him. “So... do you wanna like... go to a grocery store to get some food?” He asked. Even if she didn't want to go he would make her go, since they needed food. She shrugged and he took that as a yes.

They both got into the car, Mikey struggling with her car seat. Gerard put it in before he left because he knew Mikey would forget if he didn't do it himself.

“ _I want my daughter to be safe, especially with you driving.” Gerard had said as he put it in it's place._

“ _I don't even drive that recklessly!” Mikey had replied._

“ _Yeah, but you also don't drive_ safely _.”_

Mikey finally got her buckled in, after about 10 minutes of struggling. He stood up and sighed. Less then a day and he's already exhausted. Hell, less then an _hour_. This is going to be a tough couple of weeks.

Mikey got into the car and started to drive, keeping the radio quiet because he wasn't sure what was okay for kids. Bandit started kicking at his seat and he had to resist the urge to yell at her to stop. He drove to the closest grocery store, which was only about 10 minutes from his house. When they got there he sighed, preparing himself with the struggle of getting Bandit _out_ of the car seat. He opened the back door and, surprisingly, she was getting herself out.

“If she could get herself in I swear to god...” Mikey muttered to himself as he took her hand, walking in to the store.

It wasn't a big store, but big enough for someone to get lost in, such as a six-year-old girl whose uncle forgot to watch for a brief moment. Mikey put the frozen chicken nuggets into the cart and turned around, expecting to see Bandit right behind him. When she was not standing behind him he started to panic.

“Shit, I've had her for less than a day and I already lost her? Gerard is gonna be pissed...” He mumbled as he started looking for the girl.

“Bandit? Where did you go? Bandit?” Mikey called out, hoping that she just wandered away for a few seconds and was gonna come back to him, but ended up getting lost. He ran through the store, looking for the lost girl. When he was about to ask an employee if they had seen Bandit he noticed her in the produce section, talking to a little boy about her age.

“Bandit! Thank god! I was so worried!” He let out a sigh of relief and approached the two kids. She looked up at him and grinned and he reached down and took her hand.

“Don't run away again, okay?” Right as he said that, he heard another man call out, “Bronx! There you are!”

A short man who was covered in tattoos ran up to the little boy and hugged him. “Don't do that again! You scared me to death!” The man looked up at Mikey and smiled. “Kids, they are always wandering off finding the only other person their age.”

“Yeah, well actually Bandit here is my brother's kid. I'm just watching her while he's on vacation.” Mikey explained.

“Oh well that's very sweet of you. I'm Pete, by the way, and this is Bronx.” Pete said.

“I'm Mikey.” He shook Pete's hand, “And you already know Bandit.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Mikey dropped his hands to his side and shifted awkwardly.

“So how has babysitting been working out for you?” Pete broke the silence.

“To be honest, I've got no fu-” He stopped himself, “Uh, I have no idea what I'm doing and it's only been like an hour.” He laughed.

“You obviously still have to work on the whole 'no cursing in front of the children' thing.” Pete paused, “If you ever need any help you could come ask me. I mean, I think I've done a pretty good job with Bronx so far, especially considering I'm a single dad.”

Mikey opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Bandit tugging on his shirt saying, “Uncle Mikey, I'm hungry.”

“Well, guess I should let you get back to shopping. Nice meeting you, Mikey.” Pete smiled and walked away.

Mikey waved at him, then finished shopping and headed back home. He proceeded to make what he thought to be the best goddamn mac and cheese to ever exist- and by that he meant he actually followed the directions and put some real cheese in it.

They finished eating and Mikey was feeling pretty pleased with himself. He decided to just sit down and watch Cartoon Network for a while. He expected the shows to be dumb and fluffy, but he found himself getting sucked into one. The story was reaching a dramatic climax when Bandit said, “Mikey, I'm bored.”

Mikey sighed, then replied, “What do you want to do?”

“I don't know.” Bandit whined.

Mikey looked outside and saw that there was a nice coverage of snow on the ground and the sun was shining. He turned back to Bandit and asked, “Do you want to go to the park and build snowmen?”

“Yeah!” Bandit replied enthusiastically.

Mikey bundled her up to the point where she complained, but Mikey remembered what it was like to be that young and knew that she would get cold if he didn't do this. They got to the park and started playing in the snow. Mikey was building an amazing snowman when he was hit in the head with a snowball. He turned around, expecting to see Bandit but instead seeing the little boy from earlier.

“Bronx!” A familiar voice called, “Don't throw snowballs at strangers!” Pete jogged up to them, “Oh, hey! Sorry about Bronx, I did a pretty shi- bad job at teaching him manners.”

Mikey laughed, “It's okay, I think I needed that as a wake up call to realize that this snowman actually isn't that amazing.”

Pete laughed and Mikey couldn't help noticing how cute he looked when he smiled.

“Yeah, that snowman is pretty _abominable_.” Pete winked.

“I think I have the right to throw a snowball at you for that.” Mikey said.

“If you do that, there's nothing stopping me from throwing one right back at you.”

“I think I'll take my chances.” Mikey replied as he threw a snowball at Pete, hitting him in the face.

Pete retaliated immediately, and before long they were having a full fledged snow war. After a while, Pete raised his hands in surrender.

“I give up!” He panted out, “You win, I'm too tired to go on.”

“I think I should get something for beating you.” Mikey said.

“Oh? Like what?”

“Your number?” Mikey asked, “I mean, you're really fun to hang out with and maybe we could get Bronx and Bandit to hang out because they seem to like each other and-”

Pete cut him off, “I'd love to give you my number.”

Pete put his number in Mikey's phone and said, “You know, Bronx and I were gonna head over to Lowe's to pick up a few things, you could come if you're not busy. I mean, Bronx hates going to 'grown up stores' and he might enjoy it more if Bandit is there too.”

“That sounds great.” Mikey smiled, “Hey, Bandit, do you want to continue having fun with Bronx?”

“Yeah!” She and Bronx said in unison.

Mikey drove up to Lowe's and wasn't really sure what he was doing. One thing he definitely knew he wasn't doing was using Bandit as an excuse to hang out with Pete more. Nope, definitely not. He obviously had already been planning on going to Lowe's, and wasn't just doing it to hang out with the cute single dad he met at the park. Absolutely not.

But, honestly, who could blame him? Pete was kind of great, and he seemed at least somewhat interested in Mikey, even if it was just in a platonic way.

Which brought up another question: was Pete straight? There really wasn't any way to know, unless he said he wasn't. Maybe Mikey could casually mention that he wasn't straight and just see how Pete reacted.

Mikey really did enjoy hanging out with Pete, even if it was just at a Lowe's and he had to pay attention to Bandit the whole time. It was... nice. Pete was funny and interesting, and he really did have a nice smile.

They were walking down an aisle that was full of tools when Pete said, “You know, I always feel so out of place in this store.”

Mikey laughed, “Why's that?”

“It's just... it's just such a straight store. I feel like everyone can just tell that I'm not straight, even if they have no proof. Like I just give off some vibe that throws off the entire store.”

_Fuck yeah_ , Mikey thought, _He isn't straight_. He grinned at Pete, saying, “I know what you mean. It's like I stick out like a sore thumb.”

Pete grinned back, “I know! Like, did I get a tattoo across my forehead that says 'bisexual' without realizing it?”

“Maybe we just give off a 'not straight' vibe.”

“That's probably the case, to be honest. Like, we don't look not straight, but everyone can tell we are not heterosexuals.”

“It's really easy for them to tell if you talk about it loudly, though.” Mikey laughed.

Pete rolled his eyes, “Okay, yeah that's true.”

They finished up what they were doing and headed to the check out. They were talking and laughing when the employee smiled at them and said, “You two are a really cute couple.”

Pete turned red and laughed, “Oh, uh, we aren't dating. We're just friends.”

“Oh! Oh, I'm sorry I just- yeah, sorry. I just made an assumption, sorry.” She stuttered out.

Mikey smiled at her softly, “It's fine, don't worry about it.”

“Yeah, okay. I'm just embarrassed.” She laughed and shook her head, “I'm just glad you aren't offended or something.”

“Nah, I wouldn't be offended.” Pete paid and they left, the employee apologizing one more time beforehand. They said goodbye to each other and went their separate ways, Mikey feeling a new sense of interest in Pete.

Mikey spent most of his time with Pete over the next couple days. Mikey would initiate it almost every time, getting bored with sitting alone with Bandit around the house all the time. Plus, he was developing a small- well, not so small- crush on Pete. Pete didn't seem to mind, though- he always was up for hanging out with Mikey and Bandit. He felt a little bad using Bandit as an excuse to hang out with the cute single dad, but she really did like Bronx, so he didn't care _too_ much.

Gerard and Lindsey came home on Christmas Eve, relieving Mikey of his babysitting duties. Mikey and Gerard were sitting in the living room when Mikey started telling him all about Pete and Bronx. Gerard gave Mikey a knowing look and said, “You like him, don't you?”

Mikey blushed, “Just a little... I mean, he's really cute and funny and is really great with kids, _and_ we connected like instantly.”

“You should call him and ask to see him- _without_ using kids as an excuse.” Gerard suggested.

“I can't now! It's Christmas Eve, he's probably busy.” Mikey said.

“You don't have to do it now, but don't think I'm gonna let you off easy.” Gerard laughed.

Mikey never got a chance to call Pete, because Pete called him first.

“Hey, Mikey, it's Pete.” He said.

“Yeah, I know.” Mikey replied, “What's up?”

“Well, Bronx is at a friends house right now and I was wondering if you wanted to come over?” Pete paused, “I know this would be our first time hanging out alone, but I really liked being with you these past couple days, so I thought that maybe we could, I don't know, just hang out at my place?”

“Yeah, that would be great! I really liked being with you too.” Mikey grinned, “You know, I was gonna call you at some point, but you beat me to it.”

“Great!” Pete sounded like he was smiling too, “I'll see you soon.”

Mikey hung up and continued grinning as he put on a nice outfit and headed over to Pete's place. It was starting to get dark when he got there, but all the lights were off in the house, except the Christmas lights. Mikey felt completely gleeful in the atmosphere.

Mikey and Pete sat on the couch, eating chicken nuggets and drinking eggnog and just talking for hours. Everything Pete did made Mikey want to kiss him. The lighting, his smile, his eyes, the slightly spiked eggnog- everything just made Mikey want to close the small distance between them.

“You know,” Pete smirked, “Spiking this eggnog made it go from good to.... _egg_ cellent.”

Mikey groaned and leaned his head back in shame. He noticed something hanging above them and said, “Hey, I just realized that we've been sitting under mistletoe this whole time.”

Pete blushed and bit his lip, “Well, would you look at that.”

Mikey laughed and leaned forward slightly, hoping he wasn't misreading the situation. He sighed in relief when Pete met him in the middle, kissing him softly.

Pete pulled back slightly and whispered, “I need to confess something.”

“What?” Mikey asked.

“Bronx actually loves going to 'grown up' stores like Lowe's.” He smiled, “I just said he didn't so Id have an excuse to continue hanging out with you.”

Mikey laughed, “That's okay. Half of the times I called you I had to convince Bandit to leave the house.”

“We're both so pathetic.” Pete grinned, “I also mentioned the queer thing in Lowe's to see how you would react.”

“I was going to do the same exact thing, to be completely honest.” Mikey giggled, “But, maybe we should have just told each other that we liked each other, instead of using children as an excuse to see each other.”

“Well, it ended up working out nicely, didn't it?”

“Yeah, it did.” Mikey smiled and leaned in to kiss Pete again, and they continued to kiss passionately under the mistletoe for the rest of the night.


End file.
